There can be a lot of waste in the manufacturing process, and not always in a way where a second use is obvious. Italian furniture makers Poltrona Frau who make beautiful modern leather furniture have this problem. Lots of small and sometimes oddly shaped off-cuts of very expensive leather. To figure out what to do with the waste they approached the students at Parsons School Of Design here in New york to come up with ideas, one of which was this beautiful red saddle above. For now the products including the saddle are prototypes that will be shown at the Poltrona Frau’s showroom until the end of May. After the show the brand will decide to take one of the prototypes forward into an actual product. Lets hope its the saddle.

Another really nice urban riding piece from Mission Workshop, with some seriously nice features and materials. They chose a fabric that has great stretch qualities making it perfect for a riding position, as well as being constructed from 96 g/m2 Polartec Neo-Shell that will pretty keep out most of what the weather will throw at you. The hood is shaped to work with a helmet and they have an internal media pocket to protect that iphone 6. It comes in two colors, black and charcoal and is available on the Mission Workshop site for $499.

Growing up I used to see a lot of German touring cyclists on the loop around Galway, pushing into an Atlantic headwind with bikes loaded full of bags and things strapped to them. Fast forward a couple of decades and the selection of camping and on-bike kit for touring is pretty astounding and technically advanced. Named after one of Britain’s most iconic routes that stretches the length of the country – this full pannier set stretches the full length of the bike front to back. The bag system uses an integrated Ortlieb mounting system that makes it compatible with pretty much all frame systems. Each pannier allows you to pack a substantial 23L – thats 92L of kit – enough for any trip. With the Ortlieb QL2 mounting system and the bags the system comes in at 1940g.

Just like a bike the UEV in the title above stands for Urban Escape Vehicle. Unfortunately the camper looks like it is only available in Australia. It could best be described as the Swiss Army knife of campers. The design thinking that has gone into producing this is astounding. How they have managed to include so many features into such a small footprint has to be admired. There is everything from a bedroom, to a kitchen, to a bathroom, and a series of “outside living” features. Watch the video and see how the outdoor kitchen comes to life – pretty amazing – all with running hot water from a diesel heated water tank system.

A nice new print from Victory Chimp in collaboration with Galibier.cc, inspired by the legendary Alpine climb of The Galibier. Having sat at the bottom of that climb looking up, it is one of the most inspiring and intimidating views in cycling. The print is available here in an addition of 100.

A nice new addition to the Enve product line with their integrated GPS holder. Made to be compatible with Garmin head units you get the option of attaching it to the top set or bottom set of bolts depending on your preference for where you want the head unit to level out. It weighs in at 26g and will set you back around $40. Gives your cockpit a nice clean look.

The relaunch of the Jaguar brand has been a resounding success. They are once again making cars that if we could afford them they would definitely be on the list. Their partnership with Team Sky gives them an interesting media platform to get their products good air time in some of their biggest global markets. Last year they did a special edition F-Type Coupe for the Tour De France, only to see Chris Froome crash out. So they decided to try again in Paris-Nice this year and did a special World Champion Edition to follow Bradley Wiggins for the final time trial up to d’Eze. Alas Jaguar can’t seem to catch a break as Wiggins was a no-show for the final stage. No doubt looking at his over night position on GC and taking a peak out the window at the non-typical weather for Nice decided to say “Non” and stay in doors. Not sure they followed Richie Porte in the Jag, but they should have, he won.

Ok it might be a once in a lifetime trip, but if you ever get the chance the Onomichi-U2Hotel in Hiroshima looks pretty amazing, especially if you ride. Imagine a hotel where they welcome you riding right up to the reception desk to check in (instead of pretending that the large black box on wheels is a massage table or Trombone). Where they actively encourage you to hang your bike on the wall in your room (instead of balancing it on the small desk in the corner to make room). Where they provide service areas to do any traveling maintenance (instead of scrubbing the lube stains out of the carpet in your room). Such a place exists – coupled with amazing food and retail, Onomichi looks like a great destination. Right out the door is the Shimanami Kaido Bike Path, that takes a beautiful route across numerous bridges onto a network of islands out to Shikoku Island.

I have been following and wearing Vulpine kit for a while – although I just wore a hole in my socks (over-use). They really pay attention to the details, and their fabric choices are always really good. The launch of the “Hoy” line with Sir Chris Hoy looks like a really nice brand extension for them. The kit selection is designed to stretch from commuting to racing, with my favorite being some of the commuting kit in the pictures above. Creating performance kit in such a flooded market (even with the Hoy name behind it) is a tough ask, but Vulpine seem to be absolutely nailing and owning casual and urban riding. Best of luck!